Albertville, France; Nagano, Japan; Salt Lake City; Turin, Italy; Vancouver, British Columbia and Sochi, Russia. Those are more than simply stamps in a well-traveled passport. Or two or three, given that the expiration date has come and gone a few times over 22 years.

“One time he called from the airport,” Selanne recalled. “I said, ‘Where are you?’ ”

“LAX,” came the answer from Kurri, Team Finland’s general manager, “on the way to your house.”

“Oh, no,” Selanne said in mock terror while relating the story the other day.

Several years ago, Kurri needed players for the world championships, a far lesser tournament held at the end of every NHL regular season, usually in Europe and with rosters filled by players whose seasons ended without a trip to the Stanley Cup playoffs.

So, Kurri made his pitch to Selanne in person.

“How can you say no to your idol, when growing up you had his poster on your bedroom wall?” Selanne asked.

This time, Selanne needed no coaxing.

After all, the 43-year-old said this will be his final NHL season with the Ducks. Hockey remains in his future, with his sons’ games to be attended in their adopted homeland of Orange County. But there’s also his restaurant, a steakhouse in Laguna Beach. to be looked after, too.

One retirement is at hand, however.

Selanne joined Finland for one more gold-medal chase in Sochi, where the men’s hockey tournament begins Wednesday and continues through the championship game Feb. 23. Finland faces Austria in its first preliminary-round game Wednesday at midnight (PST).

The Finns named him team captain Monday.

Win or lose, Selanne will retire as the leading scorer in Olympic history, having broken a three-way deadlock with Valeri Kharlamov of the former Soviet Union, Vlastimil Bubnik of the former Czechoslovakia and Harry Watson of Canada with two assists in Vancouver in 2010.

Selanne has 37 points (20 goals, 17 assists) in 31 Olympic games in five Olympics. He also won a silver medal in Turin in 2006 and bronze in Salt Lake City in ’02 and Vancouver in ’10. He’s lost none of his enthusiasm for the Games, even as the sixth approached.

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“When I was a young boy and I was watching the Olympics on TV, it was a dream to be part of that one day,” Selanne recalled one day last week at the Honda Center. “Obviously, I never had any idea that I would have a chance to go to six Olympics.”

Selanne is not the same player he was in 1992 in Albertville, when he had 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in eight games. He was an unknown during those Olympics, although fans in North America hailed him as the “Finnish Flash” after he scored an NHL rookie-record 76 goals in 1992-93.

Selanne now is a role player for the NHL-leading Ducks. He had only 20 points, including seven goals, in 47 games before the Olympic break. Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau recently said Selanne’s play this season was “mediocre.”

Boudreau still marveled at Selanne’s Olympic achievement, however.

“He’s playing in his sixth Olympics. That’s pretty amazing,” Boudreau said. “I know there has to be other people that have done that. It’s something like shooting or something like that. It’s a phenomenal feat for him. Well-deserved. I can’t even fathom it.

“I would have given my right arm to have been in one.”

Kurri expects more from Selanne, a former teammate with the Ducks after so many great seasons playing with Wayne Gretzky on the Edmonton Oilers and Kings. Asked about Selanne on the eve of the Sochi Games by a Finnish television station, Kurri said:

“It’s certain he will ignite. I think he’s been waiting for the Olympics since the summer and he’s worked hard. He’s not happy with his ineffectiveness and the lesser role he has (with the Ducks), but in the national team he has a great role to fill.”

Finland isn’t expected to win a medal in Sochi, but Selanne’s youthful enthusiasm for the Olympics has not diminished in the least. He took part in a funny video produced by the Ducks, upstaging co-star Cam Fowler, a defenseman making his first Olympic appearance for Team USA.

Fowler becomes a character called “Cam America,” complete with a red cape, an American flag pinned to his T-shirt and a cowboy hat plus sunglasses. He twirls around the ice in his get-up and then marches through the dressing room, pointing at a shocked Selanne and screaming, “Wooooo.”

Selanne tells the camera, “I’ve been to six Olympics, but I’ve never seen that before.” Selanne then stands to reveal he’s wearing a blue cape with the word “Flash,” written across his back. Then he dons a white hard-hat with a Finnish flag affixed to it.

Selanne was every bit the good sport a few days before the video’s release. He played along as a reporter kidded him about the fact the stars of today’s Finnish team are goaltenders like Tuukka Rask of the Boston Bruins rather than a veteran of six Winter Games like Selanne.

“It’s kind of a shame that they are the best players right now,” Selanne said, laughing. “It’s OK. We’re very proud of our goalies. We’re a small country. We still bring a lot of players to the NHL. In the old days, they put the slowest or the fattest in goal. Now all the best athletes are the goalies.”